Financial advisors are entering the fall less optimistic about markets than they were a year ago, according to Morningstar's 2026 Investor Perspectives survey, as reported by WealthManagement.com. Geopolitical tensions and inflation topped the list of concerns, while the share of advisors offering private market investments rose modestly.
Half of respondents, 50%, named geopolitical tensions as a top market concern, WealthManagement.com reported. That is up from 37% who cited geopolitical risk in 2025. Inflation followed, with 44% of advisors listing it among their top worries, and 35% pointed to an economic downturn.
One concern faded sharply. The share of advisors worried about the impact of tariffs and trade policy fell to 14%, from 41% in the 2025 survey, according to the report.
Joe Agostinelli, senior director of market research at Morningstar, said advisors are feeling less optimistic than in 2025 and are more uncertain, as reported by WealthManagement.com.
On alternatives, 40% of respondents said they offer private market investment options to clients, up from 35% in 2025, according to the report. Another 5% said they plan to offer such options in the future, down from 8% a year earlier, while 55% said they have no plans to add them.
The survey was conducted online by Zeldis Research between July 21 and Aug. 16, 2026, according to the research notes drawn from the WealthManagement.com coverage. It drew responses from 1,401 financial advisors in total. Of those, 501 are based in the United States, with the remainder in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. The U.S. findings come from that 501-advisor group, which is part of a larger multi-country study.
Morningstar is a publicly traded company headquartered in Chicago. According to Wikipedia, it was founded in 1984 by Joe Mansueto, who serves as chairman, with Kunal Kapoor as chief executive. The same source says the firm provides investment research and investment management services, with operations in 29 countries.
For practicing advisors, the numbers suggest client conversations are likely to center on geopolitical headlines and prices rather than trade policy, which dominated last year's survey. The private markets figures point to gradual change rather than a rush: the offering share grew by five percentage points, and a majority of advisors still report no plans to add these products.